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14th Amendment to the Constitution was Ratified
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. -
Jim Crow Laws
The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 in the United States at the state and local level. -
Chicago Race Riot
A African-American boy was swimming with friends in Lake Michigan when he crossed the unofficial barrier ) between the city’s “white” and “black” beaches. A group of white men threw stones at Williams, hitting him, and he drowned. When police officers arrived on the scene, they refused to arrest the white man whom black eyewitnesses pointed to as the responsible party. Violence broke out between gangs and mobs of black and white and milita was eventually called in on August 3rd to seize riots. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Case
The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. -
Emmett Till
Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement. -
Rosa Park Refuses to Give up Seat
Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man while riding on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. -
Southern Christian Leadership Confrence
Martin Luther King assists in founding the SCLC, or the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in January of that year. The purpose of the organization is to fight for civil rights, and Martin Luther King is elected as the organization’s first president. -
Little Rock 9
Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the Little Rock Nine. -
Sit-In's Begin
Four young African-American men, students at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical College, go to a Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, and sit down at a whites-only lunch counter. They order coffee. Despite being denied service, they sit silently and politely at the lunch counter until closing time. Their action marks the start of the Greensboro sit-ins, which sparks similar protests all over the South. -
Boynton v. Virginia Case
The Supreme Court hands down a 7-2 decision in the Boynton v. Virginia case, ruling that segregation on vehicles traveling between states is unlawful because it violates the Interstate Commerce Act. -
James Meridith
James Meredith becomes the first African-American student at Ole Miss after President Kennedy orders U.S. marshals to Mississippi to ensure his safety. -
Martin Luther King Jr. gets arrested
Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws. -
"I Have a Dream"
About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington D.C. -
Freedom Riders
The Freedom Riders, composed of seven African-American and six white activists, leave Washington, D.C. for the rigidly segregated Deep South. Organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), their goal is to test Boynton v. Virginia. -
Civil Rights Act law was signed
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, siged by President Lyndon B. Johnson, is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson
